Anatomy of the Trip

In less than two weeks I will travel to Minneapolis to present at the SHAPE America national conference and I’m not saying that I’m ridiculously excited, but it has been the only thing I’ve been looking forward to since the start of 2016! I’ve not been to a SHAPE conference and found the dominance on my social media feed fof last years Seattle conference almost unbearable. In addition to presenting alongside some awesome educators I’m also looking forward to meeting so many members of my PLN in person for the first time.

So, with my tongue very much in my cheek, this week’s blog post comes to you in the style of those images that keep cropping up on my Pinterest feed. Here’s how I will be traveling to Minneapolis.

The Luggage: As I am constantly being reminded on Twitter, I am leaving the conference far too early. I fly back to Chicago on Thursday night and will miss Susan Flynn‘s Rock This Party PRINCE THEMED SOCIAL! I’ve purchased these Thule items as both have straps on them. I figure I can carry my luggage to the social, hit the dancefloor, and then Uber it to the airport at the last minute!

The Hi-Tech:My first session on Tuesday is entitled #ReadySetTech where I will present along with the awesome team of Lynn Burrows, Naomi Hartl, Joe McCarthy, Kari Bullis, Tony Alexander, Kymm Ballard and Jo Bailey. I’ll need my iPad and Macbook Pro not only to present my sessions but also get some daily podcasting done with Andy Horne. I just treated myself to the Apple iWatch so I’ll be eagerly looking out for some #pegeeks to help me work out how I can get the most from the device.

The Apps: I would imagine that these 5 apps will dominate my trip. Twitter (obviously) will be my number one method for tracking people down and sharing my experience with others. Before the conference you should be following the #SHAPECountdown hashtag and then of course the #SHAPEMinneapolis hashtag throughout. TripCase is a great travel app as it will track your flight details, alerting you of any changes (often before the airline). The SHAPE America app is user friendly and has the entire conference contained within the app….including accessing the presenter notes! A must-download for all conference attendees. I have some audio books in my iBooks app that I plan on listening to on the flight. I almost done with listening to The Warmth of Other Suns, the story of the African-American migration in the 20th century,by Isabel Wilkerson. I met her this MLK day – what a wonderfully warm individual, and outstanding author. Finally, I’ve been itching to use the live broadcasting app name ZCast. Think Periscope in an audio format. Hopefully I’ll get to broadcast a few conversations from the conference.

The Clothes: It’s my fault for tweeting this in October of last year….

As such, I’ll be rocking a few purple Nike shirts, my Purple Rain t-shirt and these purple (?!) Nike Air Epics. Other items being packed include an England jersey to wear at the all conference social event on Wednesday night where attendees will be encouraged to sport a team jersey of their favorite team. I’m hoping to catch up with fellow Brits Jo Bailey and Dr. Stephen Harvey.

The Books: I’ve got so many half-read books lying around my house but hopefully I’ll find time to finish these two. Princeby Matt Thorne is written by a fan, for fans, and I am a big Prince fan if you haven’t already guessed. Joe McCarthy has already promised me the Prince tour as he is a local. I also want to finish Ball Don’t Lieby Yago Colás, who I follow on Twitter. In the book he critiques existing popular myths concerning the history of basketball, contextualizes them, and presents an alternative history of the sport inspired by innovations. The first chapter was amazing.

The Soundtrack: With over 12,000 songs on my old school iPod there’s really only one artiste that I want to listen to this week. I have all of Prince’s legitimate recordings plus a few bootlegs too. I would imagine that Sign O’ The Times is likely to get a few plays while I am away. The Bowers & Wilkins noise canceling headphones make things sound just that little bit funkier.

The Lo-Tech: Despite my love of tech, I still insist on taking actual notes. With a pen. My Moleskine notebooks are invaluable to me and I have a number of different ones for planning and note-taking. The Field Notes limited edition Chicago edition caught my eye recently and I’ll be reppin’ Chicago, Illinois and England while I am at the conference.

Look out for a ridiculous number of tweets from me during my 3 days in Minneapolis. You can catch me presenting on Tuesday between 1-5pm and also on Wednesday with Andy Horne between 8 – 9:15am. After that I’ll be totally immersing myself in the sessions and will definitely be at the all conference social on Wednesday night. If you are there, be sure to come and introduce yourself!